Essay: Discover Why Julius Caesar is the True Tragic Hero of Shakespeare’s Play

In the written play by William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar is the tragedy of Julius Caesar’s murder. Most critics argue Brutus most identifies as the tragic hero of the story but we overlook one character as a tragic hero for not meeting the requirements. It’s Julius Caesar himself who is truly the tragic hero of the story. Julius Caesar holds all the needed requirements of Aristotle’s tragic hero; hamartia, catharsis, nemesis, hubris, anagnorisis, and peripeteia. Caesar is the hero of the story because Shakespeare depicts him as the hero through his way of writing and the era he lived. Also, the theory that Julius Caesar planned against the conspirators by allowing them to plot his murder proves he is a tragic hero.
In Aristotle’s characteristics for a tragic hero, hamartia, catharsis, nemesis, hubris, anagnorisis, and peripeteia are three of the main points needed. Hamartia, or the tragic flaw, is ambition, “Yet Brutus says he was ambitious and Brutus is an honorable man,” stated by Antony (Act III Scene Ii). According to Brutus, Caesar’s flaw was how ambitious he was in control of the Roman Empire. The portrayal of pity and fear knew as catharsis is another trait that Caesar holds. The audience feels pity over his undeserving, sudden death and over the emotional and convincing speech Antony gives on proving why Julius Caesar was an honorable man and why his death was inappropriate and unjustly. Also, Brutus murdered him, whom he viewed as his “angel” according to Antony, Caesar’s closest friend, making you pity Caesar. The story gives fear when Caesar comes as a ghost and tells Brutus of his seeing him at his deathbed. Nemesis, the unavoidable punishment, which in this case would be Julius’s death. The excessive pride and disrespect of the natural order of things also known as hubris, the fourth tragic hero trait that Caesar possesses. He has extreme amounts of pride over the fact of him taking over the Roman Empire and rebuilding it into one of the strongest empires in Italy. His disrespect comes from his wanting to become Rome’s king. The natural order of things would be Rome’s democracy, but Julius Caesar’s wish of becoming emperor he has ‘disrespect’ towards the current government of Rome. Anagnorisis is when the hero makes an important discovery, which Julius makes. Throughout the written play, someone gives Julius multiple warnings stating the coming of his death. For example, when the soothsayer told Ceasar the ides of March were coming. Last, peripeteia or the reversal of fate that the hero experiences, in this case, the reversal of fate is because of Antony and the convincing speech he presented on behalf of Caesar’s death, legacy and living on in spirit. These last traits allow Julius Caesar to have all the required attributes of a tragic hero.
Julius Caesar is a hero because of his military accomplishments, autocratic style and laying the foundations of the Roman Empire. When Shakespeare was writing “Julius Caesar,” England was entering a period of royal absolutism. The power of the English monarchs grew increasingly stronger charging aristocracy, the church, and the common people. This absolutism would eventually force monarchs to recognize parliamentary supremacy. During this period, monarchical power was reaching its apogee, and it was popular to praise powerful and autocratic monarchs. To do otherwise could invite charge treason. Likewise, regicides depicted not only as vile traitors but even as blasphemers as they were the killers of their anointed ruler on Earth. Throughout Shakespeare’s writing, he uses the concept of the dictatorship of his own country in his writings to describe how Caesar is a hero.
In a movie reviewing and going over Julius Caesar’s autopsy, they discover the most theoretical way Caesar died and what lead to his death. During the film, they go over that Caesar had a high possibility of temporal lobe epilepsy making him have seizures, have chronic diarrhea and act impulsively. The conspiracy that led to his death is that he plotted against his conspirators to allow them to murder him. Caesar himself was a strong, powerful man with a growing empire, knowing his importance he didn’t want his empire or himself to suffer from his mistakes due to his epilepsy. There is also evidence that Caesar ignored a note stating his death. Like Julius Caesar, no one else would expect anything other than him to leave without a bang!
While holding all the pertaining characteristics of a tragic hero and more, experts and critics should identify Julius Caesar as the tragic hero of the written play. Shakespeare’s depiction of Caesar was tragic, I’d say it’s because he was this great politician and military general who could out think and out maneuver his craftiest enemies but while blinded by his arrogance and ambition, his trusted friend threw him down.